Monday, April 29, 2013

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race. —H.G. Wells

Fast, efficient and individualistic, the bicycle is no ordinary mode
of transport. It’s a church, a gym, a community creator, a cash printer,
a protest placard, a dopamine generator, a mechanical expression of
self-determination, an icon of hope. It is touchable, attainable
freedom.

It is also a tool for nature conservation and one that the City of Cape Town—indeed, any city—stands to benefit from.

Bicycles enhance our freedom. Photo: Georgina Avlonitis

My father is a boisterous character, half-man half-bicycle. Last
month, he cracked two ribs after tumbling over his handlebars. I
profited from his misfortune by taking his place in the world’s largest
individually-timed cycle race, the Cape Argus.
Egged on by minstrel bands and reels of cheering supporters, some
donning fancy dress, I joined over 30,000 competitors to pedal 110 km
around the breath-taking Cape Peninsula.
The race is a magnificent celebration of sport, healthy living, unity
and nature. It physically exposes and connects people to the region’s
awe-inspiring natural beauty. The organizers are well aware of this,
having furnished all finishing medals with images of iconic local
species and the words, “Our Natural Heritage”.

The experience left me wondering whether bicycles could meaningfully
contribute to nature conservation in a broader sense. The answer appears
to be multifarious.

1. More bikes = more connectivity, awareness, compassion, and innovation

Exposure to nature nourishes the soul and fosters compassion for
wildlife (and for fellow humans), especially in children. Urban citizens
who never encounter wildlife, who never marvel at the complexity and
fragility of nature, may feel indifferent to its plight.

By liberating green space and enhancing mobility, bicycles can
reconnect people to nature and to each other. On a bicycle, one cannot
turn up the music, wind up the windows, lock the doors and adopt tunnel
vision. On a bicycle, one is exposed and alert to their surroundings.
One is manoeuvrable, approachable and distractible. One can divert, slow
and stop to examine oddities, follow intriguing scents, chat to curious
strangers, explore unchartered streets, or just quietly observe
wildlife.

With eyes and ears on the ground, cyclists feel a greater sense of
place and a stronger connection to their neighbourhoods. Such
interaction may ignite compassion for a city, its nature and people;
inspire innovations for improving urban liveability; and instil the
motivation to set about doing so. Certainly, cycling can render us
happier, healthier, wealthier and calmer with more time and money to
spare for community-centred activities including nature conservation.

Imagine:

A community of cyclists, proactively interested in their city, its nature and its people.

The ideas they will devise, develop and share, aimed at improving their city.

I recently visited a suburb of Johannesburg.
Ecologically dull, aesthetically grim, traffic congested, socially
segregated, it is dominated by roads, car parks and shopping complexes—a
superb example of bad urban planning, a suburb designed for cars not
people. Yet it resembles much of the modern world—a world that is
rapidly transforming through low-density car-infatuated urban sprawl.

A bicycle consumes only a slither of the space that a car does, both in terms of lane width and storage/parking area.

Imagine:

The potential for reducing traffic congestion by converting car drivers into cyclists.

The projected urban sprawl that could be averted and the natural habitats that could be saved.

The area of concrete and tarmac that could be reclaimed, liberated
and transformed into ecologically-vibrant, socially-inclusive
multifunctional public space.

3. More bicycles = less pollution, more resources

The life-cycle of vehicles and the road infrastructure that they
necessitate is resource-ravenous and waste-flatulent. At the point of
sale, a new car has already inflicted ecological damage globally not
least through the extractive industries that support its manufacture.
Regardless of manufacturing, conventional cars are woefully inefficient.
Why do we need vehicles that are typically 25 times heavier than our
own bodies? What a waste of natural resources! What needless
environmental degradation!

Even if distant impacts are “out of sight, out of mind” then surely
local impacts elicit concern. Vehicle emissions contribute to urban
smog, impart respiratory illnesses and stain our lungs grey.
Hydrocarbons, break fluids and other chemicals leak from cars poisoning
our waterways. Noise pollution from traffic and road construction shakes
the ground, awakens the sleeping and stresses the awake.

An average bicycle, on the other hand, produces comparatively
negligible pollution. It weighs around one-sixth of our body weight and
less than one-hundredth of an average car. It moves in silence, causing
little disturbance to wildlife. Its full life-cycle impacts are dwarfed
by those of a car.

Imagine:

The potential reduction in air, noise and water pollution by converting car drivers into cyclists.

The consequent enhancement of a city’s resource-efficiency and the reduction of its ecological footprint.

The water, mineral and energy resources that could be saved.

4. More bikes = more environmental justice

Green infrastructure generates multiple ecosystem services that
support human wellbeing including education, recreation, spiritual
fulfilment, storm water absorption, climate regulation, and food
production. In an increasingly urbanized world, maintaining direct
access to such benefits is challenging. Communities may suffer ‘nature deficit disorder’
which hinders child-development and induces psychological ailments. You
are not alone if you can identify the logos of obscure commercial
brands better than common bird or tree species. Affordable, safe public
transport is not always available for carless families wanting to visit
green spaces beyond walking distance.

Bicycles can address such environmental injustice: (1) by alleviating
road traffic to allow for the establishment of additional green space;
and (2) by extending one’s radius of accessible area to encompass
otherwise inaccessible ecosystem services.

Imagine:

Establishing more equitably-distributed green space.

Enhancing the mobility of carless citizens to enhance the accessibility of ecosystem services.

Love is a dangerous game

Despite the enormous enthusiasm for cycling, so palpable at the Cape
Argus, only a tiny, albeit increasing, proportion of Cape Town’s
inhabitants dare to cycle on a regular basis. Their reasons appear
multifarious yet rooted in fear: fear of colliding with reckless drivers
(taxis deserve a special mention here for frequently endangering the
lives of cyclists); fear of exposure to violent crime; fear of inhaling
noxious traffic fumes; fear of arriving sweaty at work; and fear of
being stigmatized.

These fears are legitimate, but all can be overcome. Local movements like the monthly Moonlight Mass and the annual Naked Bike Ride are helping to raise awareness of cycling in the city. For over a decade, NGOs like the Bicycle Empowerment Network
have been addressing poverty and mobility through the promotion of
cycling in low-income communities. However, the keys to a more
bicycle-friendly city that reaps the aforementioned social and
ecological benefits, lie primarily in the hands of the local government.

Thousands
of cyclists gather under a full moon at Green Point in Cape Town,
before cycling in mass through the city. Photo: Russell Galt

The City of Cape Town will become the 2014 World Design Capital
presenting unprecedented opportunities to support urban initiatives
fostering social and environmental progress; an opportunity to deploy
the bicycle as an agent of urban transformation and as a catalyst for
nature conservation.

Identify and pedestrianize priority roads (e.g. Long Street and sections of Main Road).

By embracing the bicycle and its associated benefits, Cape Town will
truly stand apart as a forward-looking, innovative city designed not for
its cars, but for its people and the nature that underpins their
wellbeing and prosperity.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

"In
every bio-region one of the most urgent tasks is to rebuild the
community of naturalists, so radically depleted in recent years, as
young people have spent less time in nature, and higher education has
placed less value on such disciplines as zoology……The times are right
for the return of the amateur, twenty-first-century, citizen naturalist.
To be a citizen naturalist is to take personal action, to both protect
and participate in nature.”

-Richard Louv, author of the Nature Principle

There
is much excitement in the urbanist community about how the millennial
generation are forgoing driving in favour of living in dense cities;
however few people talk about this generation’s complete disconnection
and ambivalence toward nature.

“Don’t
expect many millennials to turn up at the opening this summer of the
big, flood-protected Don River Park in Toronto’s east end. What would
fire up their Facebook and Twitter accounts would be the
much-anticipated, much-delayed reinvention of John Street in Toronto’s
entertainment district.”

This may be a sweeping generalization,
but there is some truth to the claim that my generation spends more time
loving our iPhones and drinking craft beers at a hip new downtown pub
than hugging trees.

In Vancouver, I am fortunate to live in a city
that is so surrounded by nature that it is impossible to ignore;
however many city-loving millenials don’t have the same access to nature
and will suffer as a result.

I recently finished the Nature Principle, a book by Richard Louv. Louv created the term “nature-deficit disorder”
to describe possible negative consequences to individual health and the
social fabric as children and adults move indoors and away from
physical contact with the natural world. Louv cites research pointing to attention disorders, obesity, a dampening of creativity and depression as problems associated with a nature-deficient lifestyle.

Our society is
so dependent technology that we don’t realize or even adequately study
how human capacities are enhanced through the power of nature. According
to Louv, tapping into the restorative powers of the
natural world can boost mental acuity and creativity; promote health and
wellness; build smarter and more sustainable businesses, communities,
and economies; and ultimately strengthen human bonds.

Spending
time in nature was a big part of my childhood and even teenage years.
My parents took us camping every summer, and skiing, hiking and canoeing
on weekends. Growing up in Vancouver, my primary and high school
education always involved lessons on local First Nations and the salmon
life cycle (bet you don’t know what an “alevin” is unless you grew up in
BC). I also took high school courses on local fisheries and ecology (we
even had a “salmon club” where you could participate in the local fish
hatchery).

Unfortunately now that I, like most millennials, am a
city-dwelling adult working 9-5, I don’t get to spend as much time in
nature as I used to. But, before you pick up your iPhone and go back to
social media surfing - this doesn’t mean we millenials can’t be one of
Louv’s citizen naturalists. Here are some tips to appreciate and support
nature in an urban environment.

Try guerilla gardening: most of us living in cities don’t have access to a garden, but there are many opportunities to go rogue and plant local species of trees, flowers and bushes in empty lots around the city. For tips, check out this site:

Residents
of neighbourhoods across the city have been quietly adding flowers and
other plants to lanes, boulevards and traffic circles. In Vancouver,
along the boulevards of 100 block West 10th they have added planters,
bicycle baskets, wheelbarrows and flower beds. Residents near McLean and
Grant, 8th and Sasamat, 16th and Trimble and 20th and Fleming have also
planted their boulevards with flowers. One east-side resident plants
her boulevard with beans and other vegetables for public picking.

Get educated on local flora and fauna:
There are organizations in and around Metro Vancouver (and cities
around the world) that host nature walks, bird watching excursions, etc.
where you can get to know the local plants and critters in your
bioregion. For more information on Metro Vancouver nature events, visit
these sites: Every week events; Nature Vancouver; Metro Vancouver; Ongoing Natural Walks.

Support and introduce local plants in your neighbourhood: If
you really want to support your local ecosystem, plant local species to
support the bugs and animals that live there. According to Audobon at Home:

“The most significant factors in the decline of bird populations are habitat loss and degradation. One
solution to curb habitat loss is for each residential area (new and
established) to provide birds and other wildlife the necessities for
survival — food, water, nesting area, and shelter……By creating healthy
habitat for birds and wildlife in our yards and neighborhoods, we can
temper the habitat fragmentation and displacement caused by urban and
suburban expansion by helping to build that matrix.Your yard is an important piece of the matrix. Its singular importance is magnified by the combined efforts of others.”

Enjoy your local parks and nature: Take The David Suzuki Foundation’s 30 for 30 challenge
and spend 30 minutes a day outside in nature for 30 days this May. You
will be amazed at what this does for your happiness and sense of peace,
trust me. This great infographic illustrates how nature impacts human health.

Pick up litter: Canada just celebrated its Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup last weekend. But, we can do our part every day to pick up litter in our back alleys, parks and beaches.

Use clean transportation: Riding
a bike or taking the bus means you spend more time in the outdoors, get
more physical activity and reduce your carbon footprint. ‘Nuf said.

Shop local:
support your local farmers market, co-op grocer, health food store,
florist, etc. Money spent at a local business generates 3.5 times more
wealth for the local economy compared to money spent at a chain-owned
business. And, it is better for the environment since major chains burn 1
billion metric tons of CO2 shipping products around the world. Here is
another infographic that provides further evidence on why you should shop local.

“Close the landfill, and own your shit!”: This was the response from Jennifer Marshall, partner in Urban Arts Architecture, in a Tyee article last year that asked local Vancouverites what paradigm shifts would enhance the city. In her words:

“If
we all took ownership of our consumption, if there was no such thing as
“away,” if we closed the landfill… what would the consequences be? I
believe it would reduce waste, reduce unnecessary consumption, and
reduce unnecessary production and use of raw materials. But it
would also shift our paradigm. For one, we’d value what we have more.
We’d demand higher quality, more durable goods. We’d create new
industries of reuse, and foster community through sharing resources and
means to recycle. Call it Craigslist on your block.”

These
are just a few simple tips to help you get outdoors more and appreciate
and conserve nature in your city. I would love to hear more. What do
you do in your daily life to be a citizen naturalist?

Friday, April 26, 2013

Building upon previous work of the International Resource Panel on
Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic
Growth, this report examines the potential for decoupling at the city
level. While the majority of the world’s population now live in cities
and cities are where most resource consumption takes place, both the
pressures and potentials to find ways to reconcile economic growth,
wellbeing and the sustainable use of natural resources will therefore be
greatest in cities.

Analysing the role of cities as spatial nodes where the major resource
flows connect as goods, services and wastes, the report ‘s focus is how
infrastructure directs material flows and therefore resource use,
productivity and efficiency in an urban context. It makes the case for
examining cities from a material flow perspective, while also placing
the city within the broader system of flows that make it possible for it
to function.

The report also highlights the way that the design, construction and
operation of energy, waste, water, sanitation and transport
infrastructures create a socio-technical environment that shapes the
“way of life” of citizens and how they procure, use and dispose of the
resources they require. Its approach is innovative in that it frames
infrastructure networks as socio-technical systems, examining pressures
for change within cities that go beyond technical considerations. The
importance of intermediaries as the dominant agents for change is
emphasized, as well as the fact that social processes and dynamics need
to be understood and integrated into any assessment of urban
infrastructure interventions and the reconfiguration of resource flows.

A set of 30 case studies provide examples of innovative approaches to
sustainable infrastructure change across a broad range of urban contexts
that could inspire leaders of other cities to embrace similar creative
solutions. Of course, innovations in and of themselves do not suffice if
they are not integrated into larger strategic visions for the city, and
as each city is unique, interventions need to be tailored to the set of
challenges and opportunities present in each case.

Sustainable Agriculture Curriculum

Learning to Plant SeedsDuring our summer programs,
we use a series of workshops to introduce youth participants and their
youth leaders to the principles of sustainable agriculture and the food
system. Here is the eight-part series that we have developed through the
years.

Workshop 1: Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (click here for PDF) Introduction to sustainable agriculture principles and how they are used on the farmWorkshop 2: Soil Sleuths (click here for PDF) Introduction to soil function, components, and its impact on sustainable farmingWorkshop 3: Compost Happens (click here for PDF) Compost 101: the importance, and how to create itWorkshop 4: Wayward Weeds (this curriculum is itself wayward, i.e. missing) Introduction to weeds and weed managementWorkshop 5: Insects-ploration (click here for PDF) Introduction to insects and their role in agricultureWorkshop 6: Trace The French Fry (click here for PDF) Discussion of two types of food systems: global/industrial and local/sustainableWorkshops 7-8: Food Systems Debate (click here for PDF) Debate and discussion of the merits of different types of food systems

Academic Year Program Manual (free download)

Annually, this program employs young people who have completed our
Summer Youth Program to work on community-based projects during the
school year. Members of the D.I.R.T. Crew (Dynamic, Intelligent,
Responsible Teenagers) dedicate Saturdays and after-school hours to lead
over 1700 volunteers on our rural and urban farm sites, work in
shelters, and attend conferences to speak about their experience working
for The Food Project. This manual discusses every aspect of this
program and is a great resource for those looking for ways to engage
young people throughout the year.Download (PDF)

Rural Agriculture Manual (free download)

The Food Project manages a over 40 acres of farmland in eastern
Massachusetts and distributes over 250,000 pounds of produce annually.
This manual explains how to run a sustainable production farm while
integrating thousands of youth and volunteers throughout the season. You
will learn how to set up a farm to accommodate, celebrate, and utilize
the labor of people who are walking onto a farm for the first time and
will be forever changed by their experience. Included in this manual are
tools for crop planning, labor management, and produce distribution, as
well as tips for an abundant harvest.Download (PDF)

Urban Agriculture Manual (free download)

The
Food Project grows produce on urban farms in Boston and Lynn, Mass.
This manual details how we created healthy soil, how we intersect with
the community, how to work with the young people involved in The Food
Project’s programs, and how to plan urban food lots. This manual
specifically addresses the trials and successes of agriculture in an
urban arena.

Farmers’ Market Manual (free download)

The Food Project runs farmers’ markets Boston, Lynn, and Beverly, Mass.
These markets bring local, fresh produce to customers who do not have
easy access to this type of food. Our manual discusses setting up the
market, selecting produce, training workers and young people, marketing,
and keeping business records.Download (PDF)

Volunteer Manual (free download)

This
manual is a thorough introduction to The Food Project’s Serve and Grow
farm work volunteer program. The Food Project depends on over 3,000
youth and adults to assist us in growing food, keeping our city food
lots beautiful, and reclaiming urban land. This manual outlines
recruitment, scheduling, and designing programs for volunteers.Download (PDF)

There is a growing global movement to significantly reduce the
amount of trash we produce as communities, cities, countries and even
regions. It’s called the zero-waste movement, and it received a major
boost this week as two of its leaders were awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

Nohra Padilla and Rossano Ercolini are two of the winners of this
year’s Goldman Prize, which awards $150,000 to each of six grassroots
environmentalists who have achieved great impact, often against
great odds. On the surface, Padilla and Ercolini seem to have little in
common. Padilla is a grassroots recycler—also known as a waste
picker—from the embattled city of Bogotá, Colombia. Ercolini is an
elementary school teacher from the rustic farmlands of Capannori,
Italy.
Though their experiences are different, they share a common cause:
organizing to reduce the amount of trash—everything from cans and
bottles to cell phones and apple cores—that ends up buried in landfills
or burned in incinerators.

What is zero waste?

Here in the United States zero waste is often thought of as a lifestyle choice, if it’s thought of at all. Blogs like Zero Waste Home and The Clean Bin Project
attract a readership of thousands through tips on how to buy less,
reuse more, and recycle and compost in the home. The popularity of these
projects, along with the success of Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff, show a growing interest in reducing what we throw into dumpsters.

Zero waste systems are designed with the goal of eliminating the practice of sending trash to landfills and incinerators.

Padilla and Ercolini’s stories show that zero waste is not only a
personal choice, but also an organized system that works at multiple
levels including the community, municipality, nation, and region. Zero waste systems include:

composting, recycling, reuse, and education on how to separate materials into these categories;

policy change, including bans on incineration and single-use plastic bags, and subsidies and incentives for recycling;

regulation of corporations to require them to buy back and recycle
their products once they are used by consumers (glass soda bottles and
tires are examples of products subject to this regulation in some
countries).

Zero waste systems are designed with the goal of eliminating the
practice of sending trash to landfills and incinerators. Not only is
this possible, it’s already beginning to happen. Ercolini’s hometown of
Capannori, Italy, has already achieved 82 percent recycling and reuse
and is on track to bring that figure to 100 percent by 2020.

Taking on Europe’s incineration industry

Rossano Ercolini is an elementary school teacher. He began organizing
against incinerators in the 1970s, when he learned of a plan to build
one in Capannori. Concerned for the health of his students, Ercolini
began a campaign to educate his community on the dangers of
incineration, including how the burning of garbage releases particulates
linked to asthma and other respiratory problems.

Rossano Ercolini. Photo by Goldman Prize.

Over the course of the next 30 years, Ercolini led a
David-versus-Goliath struggle, with education as his slingshot. In
the 1990s, waste incineration was embraced by the Italian government as
well as by big environmental organizations, all of whom bought into the
premise that it was a safe and effective technology. Big business
and the mafia also supported incineration because of the 20- to 30-year
lucrative contracts and large government investments it involved.
The conjunction of economic and political interests behind
incineration left citizens alone, not only to fight against incineration
but also to develop sustainable alternatives. Ercolini worked for
several years as a grassroots educator, inviting scientists and waste
experts to give workshops to residents on the health effects of
incineration and potential alternatives.

As a result, when the residents of Capannori succeeded in defeating
the incinerator proposal, they also had gained the knowledge necessary
to develop a better way of handling garbage. Ercolini himself was
tapped to lead a local, publicly owned waste management company and
began implementing a door-to-door waste collection system that
maximized the quantity and quality of the recyclable materials
recovered.

Soon after, Capannori became the first Italian municipality to
declare a zero waste goal for 2020. Since then, Ercolini has helped to
defeat 50 proposed incinerators and has also helped the zero waste
movement to spread across Italy. Thanks to the Italian network Legge
Rifiuti Zero, or the Zero Waste Alliance, and with the support of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, there are now 117 zero waste municipalities in Italy, with a population of about 3 million people.

“Incineration is no longer wanted or needed in these areas,” Ercolini
says. “Instead, they have established comprehensive recycling and
composting systems guided by zero waste goals. This has helped
improve community health and has sparked strong collaborations between
communities and local governments.”

Grassroots recyclers unite

Nohra Padilla is a third generation recycler. For decades her family
has survived by salvaging plastic bottles, aluminum cans, paper scraps,
and the like from dumps, curbside trash cans, and collection
centers. They made a living by reselling these materials to junk shops
and also to businesses, which used them as raw material to create
new products ranging from blue jeans to paper.

In the 1980s, Padilla began organizing her fellow recycling workers,
creating the first grassroots recycler cooperative in Bogotá. Since then
she has helped to form the Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá, or
Bogotá Recyclers Association, where she now serves as executive
director. The association includes 24 cooperatives representing
3,000 people. She also played an important role in forming and leading
Colombia’s National Recyclers Association.

“Grassroots recycling is a key component of a zero waste system,”
Padilla says. Through their network of cooperatives, grassroots
recyclers in Bogotá recover 20 to 25 percent of all material thrown
away by city residents. This amounts to about 100 times more recyclable
material than is collected by the city’s large private recycling
companies.

Padilla has shown how recycling can
incorporate workers into unionized labor, with a clear agenda to reduce
trash and carbon emissions.

In March the association won a milestone victory: Grassroots
recyclers are now city employees. They will be paid $48 per ton of
material they deliver to collection centers, and will be eligible
for government pensions and health coverage.

“After years of battling for recognition from the Bogotá government,
we will finally be treated as dignified workers and paid just like any
large company would be,” Padilla says. “I believe this is a victory
that can be replicated across Latin America.”

Padilla has achieved this success in the face of powerful political
opponents, a violent environment for worker organizing, and climate
subsidies that cut recyclers out of the picture. In 2009, for
example, the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism awarded carbon
credits to the Doña Juana landfill gas project. This project
threatened the livelihoods of Bogotá’s 21,000 informal recyclers by
making it more profitable to landfill waste than to recycle it, and
by limiting access to recyclable materials.

Padilla and the Grassroots Recyclers Association worked to mitigate
the impact of the project, but faced many challenges in making sure that
their community benefits agreement was implemented. In contrast to
large landfills like Doña Juana, Padilla and the association have
created infrastructure to recycle waste instead of bury it. They
raised nearly two million dollars, about 75 percent from outside funds
and 25 percent co-financed by the association, to build the biggest
grassroots-run recycling center in Latin America.

A future without landfills

The stories of these two organizers show how zero waste movements
from around the world share common problems and goals, as well as a
need to confront powerful opponents with a vested interest in the
business of trash.

Both stories also demonstrate the potential of zero waste organizing
to bring people together across issues and sectors. For example,
Ercolini has organized at the intersection of food sovereignty and
trash reduction, advocating for a “Zero Miles, Zero Waste” approach to
promoting local food. Meanwhile, Padilla has shown how zero waste
approaches, and recycling in particular, can incorporate previously
excluded workers into unionized labor, with a clear agenda to reduce
trash and carbon emissions.

Padilla and Ercolini’s work has created a model for building viable
zero waste alternatives to landfills and incinerators. The struggles
of the Colombian recyclers’ movement, and the Bogotá Recyclers
Association in particular, serve as an inspiration to recyclers
throughout Latin America and beyond.
Meanwhile, the example of the Zero Waste network in Italy is being
copied in many other places in Europe, decreasing the popularity of
and need for incineration and sparking the creation of a continent-wide organization that advocates for zero waste.Interested?

The more our world functions like the natural world, the
more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours
alone. – Janine Benyus, leading biomimicry scholar

What is biomimicry?
Biomimicry is a growing discipline that studies nature’s systems and
then imitates these designs and processes to sustainably solve current
challenges. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example
of biomimicry. Studying the intertwined complexities of a watershed to
understand systems thinking is another. While biomimicry may be an
emerging discipline in western culture, it is preceded by the practice
of biomimicry embedded in many indigenous cultures.

Why teach biomimicry?
Using biomimicry, you can help expose your students to new ways of
knowing and loving the natural world of their home. An overarching goal
is to contribute to a shift in mindset – from seeing nature as something
to exploit for short-term human benefit – to seeing nature as an
invaluable teacher and model. This shift can help us understand how to
regenerate natural resources, organize our societies, and live lightly
on the Earth.

About this curriculum
This course offers an introduction to biomimicry and how to learn from
nature. With an emphasis on getting outside and exploring the land
around you, the biomimicry curriculum that we have designed, tested, and
refined focuses on observing, appreciating and learning from nature and
natural systems in your locality. Cognizant of the ways in which
consumption and population growth have degraded our environment, we
focus on positive solutions learned from nature and ways to take
meaningful action.

I know all of the statistics of destruction, but I have
chosen to come to this out of love, because I love this place. And I
want to stay here. I want to stay home. – Janine Benyus

Course goals
Through this course, teachers and learners alike will:

Become knowledgeable and enthusiastic about biomimicry.

Get outside and strengthen relationships with the local environment.

Learn to better recognize, observe, and think creatively about processes and systems in nature.

Shift to see nature not as something to exploit, but as a teacher and model.

Collaborate with nature to devise and apply practical solutions to current challenges.

Course reading

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus

Dancing with Systems by Donella Meadows

Additional short articles, resources, and websites as assigned

Course outlineI. Introduction to Biomimicry and Systems

Introduction to One Another and Biomimicry

What is Biomimicry?

What is a System?

A Biomimicry Approach to Change

II. Innovation Inspired By Nature

A Focus on Shelters

Completing Shelters

Example Field Trip to Luna Bleu Farm: A Focus on Food

A Focus on Healing Ourselves

Example Field Trip to the Living Machine Rest Stop: A Focus on Cleansing and Energy

A Focus on Storing Knowledge

A Focus on Conducting Business

III. Being a Biomimic: Designing and Acting to Change Systems

Creating with Nature and Being a Biomimic

Course Materials
The complete curriculum is provided here, including field trip examples
and an outline of the general preparation needed to teach the course, in
addition to slides and other handouts.

Our curriculum is flexible in terms of content and order, encouraging
adaptation to local surroundings and realities, and getting students
outside as much as possible. With minor adjustments, it can be made
appropriate for a learner of nearly any age, including teenagers,
university students, and adults. Our pilot course was taught to 9th and
10th grade students at The Sharon Academy in Vermont. This curriculum
may only be used for not-for-profit, educational purposes.

When using the course, please credit the Sustainability Leaders
Network and let us know of your successes and challenges and how many
students you have worked with, either through a comment at the bottom of
this page or by writing to us: info [at] sustainabilityleadersnetwork
[dot] org. We are very open to feedback on the curriculum and, like
nature, are always seeking to evolve.

Acknowledgements and credits
A great deal of thanks is due to Janine Benyus, Dayna Baumeister, and
the staff at Biomimicry 3.8 who have built a rich foundation from which
courses like ours can grow. We are grateful to administrators and
students at The Sharon Academy who supported and participated in our
pilot teaching of this semester-long course. Their feedback was valuable
in refining the curriculum that we share here.

We are also grateful to our donors the New England Environmental
Education Association (NEEEA), who awarded us an Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) grant, and the Wellborn Ecology Fund at the New
Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF). Please note: Although our
curriculum was funded in part by the EPA, it may not necessarily reflect
the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Disasters
can hamper economic growth, affect poverty levels and cause human
suffering. Without significant action, the extent and impact of economic
and social damage associated with disasters will get worse over the
next 20 years, largely as a result of growing exposure of people and
assets. This has the potential to reverse development progress in
hard-hit areas.

Including measures to promote disaster risk management (DRM) in the post-2015 development goals is needed to incentivise investment in advance of shocks to protect lives and livelihoods – but also save money.

This report examines options for including DRM in the post-2015
development framework. Its eight chapters, each authored by leading
international experts, combine to explore three scenarios for including
DRM:

Monday, April 22, 2013

When we see a photo of our earth from space, it is hard to feel ourselves as being separate from all others.

Seeing an image of the planet Earth taken from space inspires awe in many of us, since we can clearly see the connectedness of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, sectioning ourselves into countries and states, forgetting that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth. We share everything on this planet, whether we are conscious of it or not, with other people, and those people are our brothers and sisters. Keeping a photograph or painting of the planet Earth in a prominent place in our homes can be a positive way to remember our interconnectedness.

Meditating on the fact that any sense of separation we have from one another is truly an illusion, we will naturally begin to make more conscious choices in our daily lives. The simple act of preparing food, or determining how to dispose of our refuse, can be done with the consciousness that whatever we do will affect all our brothers and sisters, no matter how far away they live, as well as the planet herself. When we foster this kind of awareness in ourselves out of a feeling of awe, it becomes easier to be conscious than to fall back into old habits of thinking of ourselves as separate.

When we contemplate the earth in her wholeness, we attune ourselves to the truth of the bigger picture, which is the Earth, and all of us, every one of us, living on her body. We are connected to one another in the most intimate way, because we literally share our living space. As more people become aware of the reality of our interdependency, things will shift in a positive direction, and much of the discord that we see now will give way to a more cooperative, loving conscious. This is happening already, so as our consciousness grows, we can join with the many other minds working to live in the spirit of togetherness.

Fact: Every dollar that stays in a community has three times the effect of a dollar that goes to a distant corporate HQ.

Cooperatives allow farmers to share the cost of buying land and supplies, and to share labor and equipment.

Fact: Farms of 27 acres or less produce 10 times more dollar value per acre than larger ones.

Where we get our food: Farmers markets and community
supported agriculture (CSA) leave out the big-retailer middleman. Small
farmers make a living; communities get fresh, healthy, affordable food.
Buy local food from farmers markets, urban food vans, co-ops and CSAs.